DeMint Resigning from Senate to Head Heritage Foundation

 

The Senate is set to lose one of its most influential conservative voices after South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint announced on Thursday that he will step down.

DeMint will take over the Heritage Foundation, and will leave the Senate on December 31.

DeMint, seen as a “kingmaker” with Republican congressional candidates due to his prodigious fundraising abilities, has long said he would not seek a third term in the Senate when his current one runs out in 2016.

But now the Palmetto State’s Republican Gov. Nikki Haley will be faced with appointing a senator who will serve nearly two years in the Upper Chamber before a 2014 election.

Only this week DeMint made headlines when he said House Speaker John Boehner's offer for $800 billion of increased tax revenues would "destroy jobs and allow Washington politicians" to swell, not reduce, federal deficits.

Boehner made the bid in negotiations with Democratic President Barack Obama to avert the $600 billion in taxes and spending cuts that will start to take effect in January if no deal is reached.

DeMint, 61, will take charge of the conservative Washington think tank, which has an annual budget of $80 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. He will replace Ed Feulner as president of the foundation.

He told the Journal he sees the foundation as a way to connect conservative ideas with the general public. "This is an urgent time because we saw in the last election we were not able to communicate conservative ideas that win elections," he said.

"We want to figure out what works at the local and state level," he added, saying he would then try to adapt them for national elections.

He said no group is “better equipped” than the Heritage Foundation to lead the conservative movement.

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